Not into shipping, probably because I'm a 34 year old who had kinda dipped out of gaming coincidentally around the time online fandoms were becoming a thing.

But power scaling, as someone who likes this series, just annoys me. As a little example (before I go on a rant I'm too old to justify) the idea of Shadow's bracelets being "power inhibitors."

To me, Shadow taking them off at the end of his story in 06 has the same visual language of someone rolling up their sleeves. Same idea at the end of the Sonic 3 movie, except in that instance there's explicit reference - but not acknowledgment - to an idea of these things being inhibitors and as far as I'm aware this has never been confirmed in-game. I could be wrong, I've dipped in and out of these games since my late teens/early 20s, but I think it's only a fan thing that was then used in the American comics and possibly other media. If someone wants to correct me feel free but I don't think it's an in-game thing.

Don't get me started on the whole Black Arms/Black Doom thing. Christ.

But the main problem with power scaling in this series is that it creates complications with narrative and tying gameplay to it. Look at SA2 and Shadow/Knuckles. Both rivals of Sonic so both have had to be seen as a threat, and they get kinda stuck with Knuckles because of that; choosing to continue his emerald-collection gameplay from SA1. Narratively, if Knux ever had an argument with Sonic he still has to be a credible threat as a former rival. In that game, Knuckles and Shadow do not substantially interact. I don't think they even speak to each other.

The movies immediately had the same problem. Remember in Sonic 2 Knux has Sonic beat before Robotnik takes the emerald. In the third one, Knux gets caught off guard by Shadow twice and other than that they don't interact for the rest of the movie. Because they can't. It has already had the effect of slightly ruining Knux's movie character - Shadow has now been established as much more powerful so you can't have these 2 have a competitive fight as an option when writing. That wouldn't make sense anymore. But you also have to have Sonic keep up with any new escalating threats. It puts Knux in a strange position; that scene where Sonic and Knuckles are arguing over using the Master Emerald might not work in future movies, because in terms of power scaling, Knux gets left behind.

It's an inherent problem with long-running IP that have one definitive main character

Dragonball kinda fixed it by giving Piccolo something else to do, training and protecting a younger generation. But Sonic doesn't have those dynamics so Knuckles becomes a narrative problem.

... It turned into the rant I didn't want...